Jews Taking New Look At Voucher Idea

Day Schools May Fight Cultural Absorption

WASHINGTON — Liberal and centrist Jewish groups that have long opposed government funding of parochial schools are taking another look at the issue.

The impetus is the growing Jewish day-school movement, which increasingly is seen as the strongest bulwark against Jewish assimilation into secular American culture.

No one expects the groups immediately to alter their long-held official opposition to vouchers, which are tax-funded vehicles that parents can use to pay for private or parochial school tuition.

However, Jewish community officials say the current conservative political climate-coupled with Jewish anxiety over rising intermarriage and declining rates of synagogue affiliation-is forcing them to re-examine the issue to a degree previously unthinkable.

"Vouchers have become an issue of debate in the community. The mood in the country among Jews may be shifting," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, which officially has opposed public funds for parochial schools for decades.

Foxman said new discussion of the issue has prompted the ADL to review its school voucher position. ADL directors will take up the issue at a meeting set for early February. He said he does not expect a reversal in policy at this time.

Orthodox Jewish groups-who until recent years operated nearly all of the nation's Jewish day schools-have generally favored limited public funding of religious schools. There are currently about 670 such schools, some 550 of which are Orthodox.

"The Jewish groups have been staunchly in opposition to breaching the church-state wall," said Steven Green, legal counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington lobbying group.